


wait

by kythen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Dark Undertones, Demon!Kuroo, KuroDai Weekend 2017, M/M, Mentions of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: Kurodai Weekend Day 1 - Ennoshita Productions:Haikyuu Fighter/ Final HQ QuestThere was a time when Kuroo thought he was invincible. He was a demon. He couldn't die and all he cared about was contained within him and himself.Then, one day after they had settled into the castle in this land, Kuroo had gone down to a village that the humans lived in.





	wait

Silence falls heavy in the castle and Kuroo's footsteps are light, soundless, as he strides through the hallway, his thoughts occupied as he pushes past the great doors of the throne room and steps into the presence of his King.

"You called for me?" Kuroo asks, trying not to let his impatience show as he stops before the throne and looks up.

Sprawled atop his throne, Oikawa acknowledges him with a careless wave of his hand. After the recent events, the thorny branches lining his throne have grown worn and wan, their previous black magnificence starting to fade into a wilting grey. Oikawa is exhausted and the castle is drained, a sign that they are losing their hold on this land. Kuroo had expected this once the humans started marching in on them but he hadn't brought himself to care. It was about time they moved on from this damned place anyway.

"The humans are on the move again," Oikawa tells Kuroo. "I need you to take care of them."

"Are they coming here?" Kuroo asks, arching an eyebrow.

Oikawa rests his chin on a hand, a corner of his lips quirking up as he reminds Kuroo, "They want revenge for what you did to them, you know."

Kuroo shrugs. "They deserved it."

"Whether they deserved it or not, it spurred them into action against us and _I'm_ not dealing with it anymore. It's all on you, Kuroo."

“Fine,” Kuroo says grudgingly because Oikawa has a point there. He had killed those men and their comrades were out for revenge against him.

But he hates that his duty tears him away from the castle when he should be here instead of out there, so far away from the castle, so far away from _him_. Oikawa knows this and Kuroo can see it in his eyes, glittering red and whimsically malicious. Oikawa doesn’t give a damn about losing this castle when he could just move on to a new one but he does care about giving Kuroo a hard time when he finally gets the chance to.

“How’s your project coming along?” Oikawa asks innocently, knowing full well that Kuroo knows what he is up to.

Kuroo has never had any strong feelings about his King but now, at this very moment, he thinks he hates him.

“Fine,” Kuroo repeats curtly. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” He turns on his heel and leaves the throne room before Oikawa decides to saddle him with any other extra responsibilities just because he could.

Kuroo stomps back the way he came from, descending into the bowels of the castle. The winding staircase leading the way down is lined with torches and Kuroo lights them all with a flick of his wrist, their flames flickering in his wake as he sweeps by. At the very bottom of the staircase, the deepest point of the castle, there is a door and it swings open to admit Kuroo as his foot touches the last step. Kuroo's magic hums back at him as he passes through the open doorway, recognising its caster and accepting him into the web of spells he had layered within the room. If anyone else but Kuroo tried to force their way into this room, the results would be ugly—Kuroo had made sure of that. The door shuts with a soft creak behind him and Kuroo waves off the remaining enchantments before the room shows him what he wants.

At the very back of the room, a massive spherical object hangs from the ceiling, drooping down to graze the earthy ground. Kuroo calls it an "incubator" instead of the "egg" that Oikawa had called it when he had broken into the room to look at it, even though both terms would technically be accurate. The surface of the incubator is woven out of fleshy membrane and its contents imbued with as much of Kuroo's magic as he could call up before he sealed it in. When he presses his ear to it, he can hear a slow _thump thump thump_ which beats in time with the pulsating surface.

On good days, Kuroo can see the faintest hint of a silhouette within the incubator and it cheers him up to see him doing well. On bad days, there is nothing and Kuroo keeps his cheek pressed to its surface, listening for him inside. Today is an extraordinarily good day. The silhouette is darker and more defined than usual and Kuroo's heart soars. He lays a hand against its surface and it pulsates strongly against his palm, making him smile.

"I'm going out for a while," Kuroo says tenderly, looking at the unmoving silhouette within the incubator. "Be strong, darling."

\---

“If there’s one thing that’s particularly dangerous about human beings,” Oikawa remarks, “it’s their numbers. As soon as you fell one there’s another rising to take their place. It’s terribly inconvenient." He smirks, resting his chin elegantly in his hand. "Especially for you, it seems. Tired, Kuroo?”

“Of your voice, yes,” Kuroo replies.

“How rude. I was just showing concern for you as your King, you know,” Oikawa tells him, mock indignant.

“If you were really concerned for me, you would leave me alone instead of sending me out to deal with every human patrol that comes too close to the castle,” Kuroo says, barely keeping a grip on his temper.

“They are scouting patrols and scouting patrols mean action and action means that they’ll storm the castle with your precious project in it. You don’t want that, do you, Kuroo? We can leave just fine but he can’t,” Oikawa points out, his voice silky. “So thank me for keeping an eye out for you and thank Shimizu for picking up the slack when you can’t keep up with the humans.”

“Thank you, my King,” Kuroo mutters through clenched teeth and Oikawa smiles benevolently down at him from his throne.

“But Shimizu can’t cover for you forever. We need to move, Kuroo.”

“I just need a little more time."

“We don’t have much time left,” Oikawa tells him, slumping back against his throne of thorns. They break off at his touch, dropping to the floor in a shower of brittle fragments. Oikawa’s power over this land is all but gone and when the human army storms the castle, he will lose his last grip on it. Oikawa’s magic reserves are dangerously low and Kuroo knows that he is conserving the last bit of it for moving the demons to their next castle. “When time runs out, we’re leaving with or without you, Kuroo.”

Kuroo nods jerkily. He can’t blame them. But he can’t protect the castle on his own either.

After leaving the throne room, Kuroo descends into the bowels of the castle, trying not to trip over the steps in his exhaustion. His magic is depleted and he feels empty, floaty, and light-headed. The number of humans occupying the forest around the castle had only increased over the past few weeks despite Kuroo's and Shimizu's efforts to get rid of them. Tanaka and Nishinoya had reported that reinforcements had been pouring in from the neighbouring kingdom, its ruler determined to claim this entire land for their kingdom, including this castle.

The invading army had razed the human villages around Oikawa's castle but they had been frustrated to find that they couldn't take over the castle just as easily and that their soldiers had been felled by mysterious circumstances. But that hadn't stopped them from trying to storm the castle and Kuroo knows it is only a matter of time before the demons exhaust themselves trying to fend off the humans. It was more convenient to just move to a new castle.

Kuroo stumbles into the underground room and heads straight for the incubator on wobbly legs. Today is a bad day and Kuroo sees nothing within it, not a silhouette, not the faintest shadow. Only the slow _thump thump thump_ coming from within the incubator assures Kuroo that he is still there and Kuroo presses his forehead to the surface, exhaling deeply.

"Please hurry up, darling," Kuroo pleads. "We need to get out here."

\---

Oikawa leaves. Shimizu leaves, taking her two demon underlings with her.

Kuroo stays.

The castle is overrun and Kuroo hears their rough footsteps pounding down on the floors above his head, searching for any remaining demons. They will find the castle deserted, the demons all fled, and they will cheer, thinking that they had vanquished them all. Kuroo needs them to think that way and not notice the layers of enchantments blocking off all the pathways leading down below the castle. Most humans are magic-blind and even those who aren’t would take weeks to whittle away at the defences Kuroo had put up before he had run down here and locked himself in this room deep under the castle.

What remains of Kuroo's magic buzzes weakly under his skin and he clenches and unclenches his fists, reminding himself to save the last bit of it for getting out of here. Kuroo sits by the incubator, placing himself between it and the door, hiding himself under the same illusions that he had spelled the incubator with. A magic circle lays under his feet, etched into the ground and ready to be activated by the smallest spark of Kuroo's magic. He wants to be able to leave at any time instead of lingering in a castle that was no longer theirs. Kuroo brushes his fingers against the surface of the incubator, searching for a silhouette within it. He can't protect the castle on his own but he can protect this room and what is in it.

There was a time when Kuroo thought he was invincible. He was a demon. He couldn't die and all he cared about was contained within him and himself. He served under Oikawa and Shimizu was a friend, if not a colleague of sorts, but he didn't care about them—he didn't _have_ to when they were demons who were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

Then, one day after they had settled into the castle in this land, Kuroo had gone down to a village that the humans lived in.

_"...something underground... traces of magic..."_

Kuroo hears voices. Human magic probes at the web of enchantments he had woven over the pathways leading under the castle. The humans had discovered the enchantments, distinctively of demon-make, and they would try to break through them. It might take them days or weeks or months before they unravel Kuroo's spells but Kuroo doesn't want to stick around to find out when they would succeed. He wants to leave now.

Kuroo rests a palm against the surface of the incubator, trying to sense him inside it. The membrane is unusually hot to the touch and Kuroo frowns, searching for any disturbances within it. The incubator throbs against his palm, falling out of time with the slow _thump thump thump_ rhythm it had taken up from the start, and Kuroo rises to his knees, turning his face upwards to watch as a rip starts to form at the top of the incubator.

The rip widens before Kuroo's eyes, slicing through the centre of the incubator in a neat split. Fluids spill from the gap it uncovers, soaking into the earthy ground under the incubator. Kuroo holds his breath, every inch of him tense with anticipation as he watches the incubator drain away to nothing more than a lifeless skin of membrane, peeling away to reveal a body within it. With nothing to hold it up, the body falls forward and Kuroo moves to catch him in his arms, his hands shaking as he sluices away the fluids and patches of membrane clinging onto his bare skin.

He is perfect, his skin smooth and whole, just a shade paler than Kuroo remembers. Kuroo touches his head and finds twin horns amongst his cropped hair, identical to Kuroo's own, the sharp points piercing Kuroo's flesh and leaving stinging pinpricks. A pair of small, black wings sprout from his back, bat-like in appearance, and Kuroo touches them reverently, wondering if he will be able to fly with them. Kuroo runs his hand across his stomach then goes around to touch his back, prodding the skin there and finding nothing but strongly knitted skin and muscle, growing over the fatal sword wound he had borne when Kuroo had finally found him in the ashes of his ruined village.

He stirs in Kuroo's arms, his breath wheezing harshly in his throat, and his eyes fly open as he gags, hacking out the fluid clogging up his windpipe. Kuroo strokes his back soothingly, easing him up into sitting position as he throws it all up onto the earthy ground.

"Kuroo?" he gasps between ragged breaths, looking up at Kuroo, his eyes dazed and confused. His eyes had once been a warm shade of brown and Kuroo had loved seeing that colour under a bright blue sky but now they are as red as Kuroo's, the eyes of a demon.

"Daichi," Kuroo breathes and wraps his arms around him in a tight hug. He hadn't thought that this would work. Magic, demon or otherwise, has never been used to change humans, let alone _dead_ humans, into demons but Kuroo had been desperate from the moment he thought he was going to lose him forever.

"We have to go now," Kuroo tells him, pulling away for the barest of seconds to tug off his cloak and wrap it around Daichi's naked form. Then Kuroo scoops him up, cloak and all, and takes a step back into the waiting magic circle. He utters a word and what little magic he has left rushes out of him and into the circle, flooding it with the command to go.

The earthy room vanishes and with it, the old castle. Oikawa had left hints about their new whereabouts and it had been easy enough for Kuroo to figure out where they were headed. Their surroundings reshape themselves into the stone walls of an unfamiliar castle, taken over by the distinctive hum of Oikawa's magic, and Kuroo staggers under the total drain of his magic and the weight of Daichi in his arms.

Footsteps patter down the wide hallway and Kuroo swivels around to see one of Shimizu's underlings, Nishinoya, making his way towards Kuroo, carrying a corpse twice his size up in the air. He doesn't even blink at Kuroo's sudden appearance as he recites, “Lord Oikawa says to tell you, ‘It’s about time you showed up. Did your egg hatch in time?’”

“Did he tell you in advance to say that to me the moment I stepped into the castle?” Kuroo asks dryly.

“He briefed all of us.” Nishinoya grins back at him before he goes traipsing past Kuroo.

“Typical.” Kuroo rolls his eyes. “Drama king.”

"Most of the rooms should be empty so just pick one for your own use," Nishinoya hollers backwards at him, his voice echoing through the stone walls. "Tanaka and I are clearing the others out."

Following Nishinoya's advice, Kuroo lets his feet take him into a wing of the castle he hopes would have one of the empty rooms Nishinoya mentioned. Daichi is still disoriented after emerging from the incubator and then being abruptly transported to the new castle and he is quiet, his head lolling against Kuroo's chest and his eyes barely wider than slits as Kuroo carries him into a nearby room.

Daichi blinks up at Kuroo as Kuroo lowers him onto the bed, fussing with the folds of his cloak until they settle comfortably around Daichi. He strokes Daichi's hair, smiling as Daichi's gaze focuses on him. Daichi shifts against the bed, half-turning onto his side to take his weight off his new wings, and Kuroo sees them peek out from under his cloak, shivering against Daichi's back.

"Kuroo?" Daichi says again, his brows furrowing. "What happened?"

"The old castle was taken over by an invading army so we moved to a new castle," Kuroo explains. "As much as I hate to admit it, Oikawa's got it all under control. We'll be safe here."

The confusion on Daichi's face doesn't clear up at all and the furrow between his brows deepens as he scrunches his face in thought. "No, I mean... I thought I..." Daichi trails off as he pats himself down, tugging the cloak away from his middle to touch his stomach, searching it for a wound. Uncertainty flickers across his face as he finds nothing but smooth, unbroken flesh there.

Daichi sits up, the cloak falling away from him as he reaches behind to feel for a wound he knows had been there and he freezes as his fingers brush his leathery wings instead. He catches a corner of a wing and tugs, wincing when it doesn't come off. Then he turns to look behind him and his face pales as he catches a glimpse of the wings protruding from his back. Instantly, Daichi's hands fly up to his head and Kuroo grabs his wrists before he impales them on the sharp points of his horns. Kuroo knows too well how much that would hurt and he eases Daichi's hands down into his lap, feeling Daichi's pulse flutter wildly under his fingers.

Daichi looks at Kuroo and there is something like fear in his red eyes as he asks, "I died, didn't I? Kuroo, what did you do?"

Kuroo smiles at him reassuringly, holding Daichi's hands in his and feeling his magic hum back at him from under Daichi's skin, coursing through his veins and keeping him warm and alive. "You're one of us now. You can never die again."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Find me here: [tumblr](http://kythen.tumblr.com) / [twitter](http://twitter.com/catcrowcalls)


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